University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore

Includes bibliographical references.

Elements known to the ancient world: gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, mercury, sulfur -- Carbon and some of its compounds -- Elements of the alchemists: arsenic, antimony, bismuth, phosphorus -- Some eighteenth-century metals: zinc, cobalt, nickel, manganese -- Three important gases: hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen -- Tungsten, molybdenum, uranium, chromium -- Tellurium and selenium -- Niobium (columbium), tantalum, vanadium -- The platinum metals: platinum, rhodium, osmium, iridium, palladium, ruthenium -- Three alkali metals: potassium, sodium, lithium -- Alkaline earth metals, magnesium, cadmium: calcium, barium, strontium, magnesium, cadmium -- Elements isolated with the aid of potassium and sodium: zirconium, titanium, cerium, thorium, beryllium, boron, silicon, aluminum -- Some spectroscopic discoveries: cesium, rubidium, thallium, indium -- Periodic system of the elements -- Some elements predicted by Mendeleev: gallium, scandium, germanium -- The rare earth elements: ytterbium, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, praseodymium, erbium, terbium, yttrium, scandium, holmium, thulium, samarium, gadolinium, dysprosium, europium, lutetium -- The halogen family: fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine -- The noble gases: helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon -- The natural radioactive elements: radium, polonium, uranium, radon, protactnium, actinium, thorium -- Discoveries by X-ray spectrum analysis: hafnium, rhenium -- Modern alchemy: francium, technetium, promethium, astatine, neptunium, plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium, californium, mendelevium, einsteinium, fermium, 102 [Nobelium], lawrencium, 104 [Rutherfordium] -- List of the chemical elements -- Chronology of element discovery.

Describes how various elements were discovered and includes biographies of the discoverers.